Mayor repeats calls to open up half-empty mass vaccination centre for transport workers and teachers

Bus and taxi drivers and teachers over the age of 50 should be given Covid jabs at the half-empty mass vaccination centre at the Etihad, say local leaders.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has repeated calls on the government to give local authorities greater flexibility over how to use spare capacity at the site.

Covid jabs are said to be ‘sitting in fridges’ as people belonging to the four groups on the government’s vaccine priority list are waiting to be invited to a more local vaccination centre instead.

They include care home residents and staff, health and social workers, over 70s and above and people aged 65 and under who are at a higher risk of the virus.

Mr Burnham said there was ‘frustration’ around the lack of takeup at the Etihad, which he described as an ‘amazing operation’ that was running at ‘significantly below capacity’.

 

 

He told a press conference on Wednesday (24 February): “The centre is more attractive to people with means to get around, who are mobile and are potentially more in their 50s or 60s.

“The case I’ve put forward to the government is that teachers over 50, taxi drivers and bus drivers would have the ability to book slots at the mass vaccination centre.

“We think that would be a better use of resources and giving reassurance to those who may be worried in their workplace.”

Sir Richard Leese, deputy mayor of Greater Manchester, also said those at a higher occupational risk of Covid should be able to take advantage of space capacity.

The lead for health and social care in the city-region said that bus drivers and transport were ‘at the top of the list’, according to Public Health England data.

“I’ve argued in the past that once we got through first four priority groups, that we ought to start looking at occupational risk,” said Sir Richard.

“If the objective initially was to take pressure off our hospital to save lives, that’s done predominantly through those four groups.

“We are now in a position that we ought to be offered flexibility at a local level to make sure we maximise the capacity that we’ve got through, amongst other things, being able to offer vaccinations for people at higher occupational risk.”

The Manchester council leader said the two booking systems for jabs – one through the national system, the other through localised vaccination at GPs and pharmacies – needed to be combined.

It was also suggested that the prioritisation of vaccination also had to consider health inequalities in communities with the ‘greatest vaccine hesitancy’.

Sir Richard added: “If we’re serious about tackling health inequalities, and again this comes down to saving lives and taking pressure of the NHS, then we ought to be making sure we do put additional effort and do prioritise being able to get vax into those areas by every method available to us.”

Niall Griffiths, Local Democracy Reporter